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LXer Weekly Roundup for 04-Dec-2011

In the LXWR this week we have the news of a secret application on millions of smart phones that logs everything you do, Cloud predictions for 2012, Continued debate over Distrowatch rankings, R.C. Harner responds to Lisa Hann's "Disadvantages of Using Linux." article and Linus says he is actually starting to like Gnome 3. Enjoy!

Android Started Before iPhone: How True a Statement is That?: How much Apple's founder Steve Jobs hated Android is evident from his last conversations with his biographer, Walter Isaacson. Steve Jobs claimed that Android was a rip-off of Apple's iOS and that he will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong, to destroy Android. This created an uproar. In an interview with Reuters, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, said that all these allegations are baseless and that Android project started well before the iPhone effort. Let's find out how true a statement that is.

BUSTED! Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps: In a YouTube video posted on Monday, Trevor Eckhart showed how software from a Silicon Valley company known as Carrier IQ recorded in real time the keys he pressed into a stock EVO handset, which he had reset to factory settings just prior to the demonstration.

Is Linux being taken seriously?: As recent as the last 2 years I’ve noticed that the formerly Microsoft dominated PC world seems to be taking Linux more serious. Since Dell took that first pioneer foray into shipping systems with Linux pre-installed in 2008, other manufacturers have stopped ignoring the Linux world by writing drivers for Linux and porting their software for Linux. I make some of my income through an on-line outsourcing agency called oDesk. When I first heard about the agency I looked it over critically and was struck by the serious business professionalism of the site.

Security: Linux, OS X, Unix and Malware (Viruses): I recently had the opportunity to look into the anti-malware world of Apple OS X. One of our clients moved to a new office in late October 2011. As part of this move they also moved from Microsoft operating systems and software to Apple OS X systems and software, making a clean break from all things Microsoft. While researching their question about anti-malware for OS X I found that the world of anti-malware for OS X is just as fraught with information and disinformation from Apple fans, Apple opponents and anti-malware vendors as the world of Linux seems to be at times with its fans and detractors. I came to the following conclusion which is paraphrased and expanded from the e-mail I sent our client.

Five Cloud Predictions for 2012: I spoke with Rackspace CTO John Engates the other day about his 2012 predictions for The Cloud and Cloud adoption. I was excited to hear his predictions from a Cloud provider’s point-of-view. Admittedly, I expected his opinion and view to be skewed by his proximity to the hosting business but to my surprise, it wasn’t. He has a very realistic view of Cloud adoption.

Copyright Corruption Scandal Surrounds Anti-Piracy Campaign: Anti-piracy group BREIN is caught up in a huge copyright scandal in the Netherlands. A musician who composed a track for use at a local film festival later found it being used without permission in an anti-piracy campaign. He is now claiming at least a million euros for the unauthorized distribution of his work on DVDs. To make matters even worse, a board member of a royalty collection agency offered to to help the composer to recoup the money, but only if he received 33% of the loot.

Linus Torvalds Starts Liking Gnome 3: Yesterday Gnome project announced a site called Gnome Extensions which makes it easier to find and install extensions. There extensions already exist, but not much was known about it. It seems Linus Torvalds has tried the extensions and is now liking it. He posts on his Google + page, "Hey, with gnome-tweak-tool and the dock extension, gnome-3.2 is starting to look almost usable."